The Congress party on Saturday, March 25, has released its first list of candidates ahead of the Karnataka Assembly elections. This first list of 124 candidates includes the top state-level leaders of the Congress including former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and the party’s state president DK Shivakumar, who will be contesting from the Varuna and Kanakapura assembly constituencies respectively.

91-year-old Shamanuru Shivashankarappa was finalised as the party candidate from Davanagere South constituency while veteran Congress leader KH Muniyappa was given a ticket from the Devanahalli Assembly constituency. The party’s MLAs from Bengaluru including Krishna Byregowda, NA Haris, KJ George, Rizwan Arshad and Dinesh Gundu Rao were all named as candidates for the election in their respective constituencies.

The Congress Central Election Committee held a meeting in Delhi on March 17 to finalise the first list of candidates in the state. The list was initially set to be released on March 22 on the occasion of Ugadi before it was postponed. Senior Congress leaders refuted reports that the announcement was delayed due to the uncertainties over Siddaramaiah’s constituency and instead said that it was due to the fact that newspapers were not printed on the occasion of the Ugadi festival. 

The BJP had failed to become the single largest majority in the 2018 elections winning 104 seats in the 224-seat Karnataka Assembly. The Congress, which won 80 seats, and Janata Dal (Secular) which won 37 seats formed a coalition government following a post-poll alliance. The BJP rose to power in the state in 2019 after several candidates from the Congress and JD(S) resigned from their position as MLAs and joined the party. Following the by-elections, the BJP had the support of 120 MLAs in the state including 1 independent MLA while the number of Congress and JD(S) MLAs dropped to 69 and 30 respectively.